What Does Isaiah 2:14 Mean?
And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills, the lifted ones,
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,THE KEY
The Hebrew word for the hills being “lifted up” also belongs to a root meaning “to carry” or “bear,” so height is no refuge from the LORD’s reach.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s day reaches every high place: mountains and raised hills are both named, leaving no height outside its scope. What stands above the landscape remains visible before God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that prominence or power places something beyond exposure and judgment.
THE ROOT
הַנִּשָּׂאוֹת
hannissa’ot
GROWS FROM
נשא
To lift, carry, or bear.
“the lifted ones” in this verse is hannissa’ot. The same root describes hills raised high, a leader raised to prominence, and a burden borne. English separates height from bearing; Hebrew keeps them in one word-family, showing that what is lifted is not beyond what can be carried or brought under judgment.
ALSO GROWS
nasi: A prince or leader; one raised to a position of prominence.
נָשִׂיא
The raised hills echo the language of people elevated to prominence, putting both kinds of height within the verse’s scope.
massa: A burden, or an oracle, something borne or carried.
מַשָּׂא
This branch joins elevation to bearing: the root used for what is lifted high also names what is carried as a burden.
THE PATTERN
Elevation never puts anything beyond God’s reach: what is high can be lowered, and what is low can be raised.
Every valley is lifted, and every mountain and hill is brought low; the crooked is made straight, and the rough places become a plain.For everyone who lifts himself will be brought low; and the one who lowers himself will be lifted up.So be made low under the strong hand of God, that he may lift you up in season.THE THREAD
Surely he has borne our sicknesses, and carried our wounds. Yet we reckoned him struck, beaten by God, and bowed low.Isaiah 53:4 uses נָשָׂא (nasa, “bear” or “carry”) for “borne our griefs,” the same root behind these hills being “lifted up.” The root holds raising and bearing together, joining what stands high with what can be carried.
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